


A little Push

by nanuk_dain



Series: Drift Compatible [20]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 03:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2493512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako is sitting in the med bay with a broken collar bone and knows she can't participate in Operation Pitfall as a pilot. So she does the only logical thing and pushes Raleigh towards Chuck, because <i>they</i> still can pilot together.</p><p>If they get their act together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A little Push

**Author's Note:**

> I really like Mako, and I think she deserves not to get kicked out just because Raleigh and Chuck are a perfect match. Her role isn't over yet. I love the connection she has with Raleigh (which I see as platonic, but very very deep) and I intend to keep it. I hope you enjoy and don't mind me spamming you with fics XD

_Hong Kong Shatterdome, January 8th 2025_

 

Mako stares at the ceiling, as grey as in all the rooms of the Shatterdome, just naked concrete. The pain is manageable now that the pain meds the nurse forced down her throat are slowly taking effect. She's not wearing her drivesuit anymore, the techs peeled her out of it as soon as Gipsy was safely back in the hangar.

Well, mostly safe, anyway. 

Mako wants to get out of that flimsy hospital gown. She has a broken collarbone, it's no reason to keep her in the med bay, never mind this bed. She want to get back to repairing her girl, because Gipsy needs to be a 100% for Operation Pitfall. Mako is tempted to just get up and go, but she has to wait for Raleigh who promised to bring her a set of clothes. She's not quite willing to walk through the Shatterdome in a loose piece of fabric that's open at the back. All the way down.

Mako sighs and leans back against the headrest. She'd been hit harder because it was her side of Gipsy that Otachi had attacked. She'd felt the exact moment when her collarbone had snapped when the falling piece of Gipsy's screen had impacted with her shoulder. Nevertheless, she had finished the fight alongside Raleigh who'd done his best to take on as much of her pain through the drift as he could so that they could both keep going. And they had won. They had killed Leatherback, and they had killed Otachi. Not bad for her first real combat.

Well, her pilot's career is pretty short, too. No more Conn-Pods for her, that's for sure. A broken collarbone takes more than a few days to heal. But she's quite sure they don't have more than a few days.

Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon haven't fared so well. Mako shudders as she remembers watching and listening over the comm how they were so savagely destroyed by Leatherback and Otachi. It still shocks her how unerringly the two Kaiju have gone for the weak spots, how they _knewn_ where to hit. It was over so quickly that nobody had really managed to get a grip on the situation before Cherno and Crimson were sending distress calls for backup.

It's a miracle that the Kaidonovskys and the Weis made it out alive. In the Russian's case it was Aleksis who saved their lives by releasing his own harness the moment he felt the water enter the Conn-Pod, and then he ripped Sasha out of hers with his bare hands, no matter that she yelled that she wasn't done fighting yet. The black eye he sports was her gift. They'd left the Conn-Pod through the hole Leatherback had ripped into the hull, just moments before he crushed it. The force of the explosion had left the Kaidonovskys with ringing ears, disoriented and almost drowning, and it was sheer luck that Sasha had managed to grab hold of a floating piece of debris of her own dying Jaeger. This time she had dragged Aleksis, because he'd been hit worse by the explosion. Later Mako learned that he had shielded her.

Otherwise they received mostly minor injuries, cuts and bruises and a slight case of Kaiju Blue poisoning; a broken arm in Aleksis case and a rather impressive laceration on the forehead in Sasha's. Mako is relieved that they're well - she can hear them argue in the room next to hers. It's a good sign.

The Wei brothers aren't quite that lucky. Mako heard from Sensei that Cheung is currently in a medically induced coma due to a head trauma, and Jin and Hu have several broken bones. They used the emergency escape pods, but in the express mode - extra fast extraction at the risk of injuries to the pilots. It's a system that's only used in very few Jaegers because it's deemed so dangerous, and it's only supposed to be used as the very last choice. It's the first time Mako knows of that it was actually used. The speed of the Conn-Pod extraction as well as the ejection out of the Jaeger create forces that can - and will - break bones. Cheung was simply unfortunate, he hit his head because his helmet had been damaged during the fight. Jin's and Hu's helmets were still intact, so they fared better.

Well, it saved their lives. They will take even longer to recover than Mako and the Kaidonovskys, but at least nobody died today. Mako knows it was a very _very_ close call. 

Herc and Chuck Hansen are the only ones who came out of today's Kaiju encounter unharmed. The EMP blast shut off all of Striker's systems, but that was it. Before Leatherback could cause any damage, Raleigh and Mako had joined the fight. It was at the last minute, she's quite aware of it. The Kaiju was just preparing to end Striker Eureka and its pilots for good. She still has to smile at the crazy move to shoot with flare guns at a raging Kaiju. It's a typical Hansen thing to do, and she respects it for the sheer insanity it is.

She knows Raleigh is in the door even before she sees him or he can say a word. It must be the drift hangover she heard about from older pilots.

"Hey." he says quietly, gives her that kicked puppy smile she kind of finds adorable, especially considering that he's a grown man. "How's your arm?"

"Broken collarbone." Mako replies and watches as he comes in and sits on the bed. 

"Brought you something more decent to wear." He says with a smirk and jerks his chin at her thin gown. He has a stack of clothes in his hands that he holds up now, and Mako can tell he brought her her J-Tech overall. She wants to hug him for it, because she loves that thing, it always reminds her of the hours she spent tinkering with Jaegers. It's also a sign that he doesn't consider her useless just because she's out of commission for the Conn-Pod. 

"Thank you, Raleigh." Mako gives him her bravest smile, because she's still not over the fact that she won't pilot again. She'd just got the hang of it. She loved it. It was all she had dreamt about since that day in Tokyo, and now it's her own body that betrays her. The worst is that there isn't even anybody to blame. Getting injured is part of the risk you take when you step into Jaeger, she knows that. She has just never expected it to happen before she can fulfil her duty.

"You know that what you did today was amazing, right?" Raleigh leans in towards her until their shoulder touch, very softy, just to be there. "You didn't just do good, Mako, you did great. There are very few pilots who would have managed to keep on fighting with a broken collarbone, especially considering that it was your first real combat."

She wants to say something, but she doesn't have the words. Not in English, not in Japanese, not in any language.

"You can be proud of yourself." He nudges her uninjured arm, very gently as to not upset her collarbone, and forces her to look at him. "We all are. Tonight you protected Hong Kong and saved millions of people. Don't beat yourself up about something you had no influence on. That plating could have hit me just as well as you."

Mako bites her lip, because she can feel an echo of Raleigh's feelings over the leftover drift, and it tells her that he means it, truly and honestly means it. She did good. It's still hard to believe that sitting in an infirmary bed with a her arm in a sling, unable to fight again.

"Want to get out of here?" Raleigh asks with a smile and offers up the clothes he's still holding. "I'm sure it drives you crazy to just sit here."

She sighs. "I still have to get cleared, or Sensei will drag me right back. I'm waiting for the nurse to come back."

Raleigh snorts. "Maybe she got lost."

Mako can't help the answering twitch of her lips. Then she turns serious and looks at him. "Who will be your co-pilot for Operation Pitfall?"

He shrugs. "I don't know."

"You have to do a trial with Chuck." Mako says, although it pains her to admit by that request that she won't be the one to be in the Conn-Pod with Raleigh for Operation Pitfall. She knows that she can't pilot a Jaeger with a broken collarbone, and the mission is more important than her desire to fight that final battle. So she swallows her pain and pushes Raleigh in the only direction he can go, no matter how reluctant he is.

"He's an arrogant prick." Raleigh just says, mouth turned down at the corners. 

"You are drift compatible." Mako doesn't make it a question. She knew when she saw them fighting in the hallway in front of Sensei's office. She even suspects that they're a perfect match, but she has not addressed that matter with anybody yet, and she wants to be sure of it before she does.

"So you saw that, too." He sighs and rolls his eyes. "Our little stunt in the hallway?"

Mako nods. "It was obvious."

Raleigh just pulls a face, but one look at him tells her that he knows she's right but isn't ready to admit it yet.

It's just then that Chuck comes in. It surprises Mako a bit. They have known each other for years, grew up together for a few years here and there, but Chuck hasn't been very forthcoming with concern or care for others in a long time. She sees his gaze flicker to Raleigh and she guesses that Chuck didn't expect to come across him here or he probably wouldn't have shown up.

"Hey." he says, and Mako can see in his face that he's considering leaving again for a long moment, but then he steps into the room. "Heard you were injured." 

"I broke the collarbone." Mako tells him and watches him standing a little awkwardly in the middle of the room, as if he can't quite decide to stay or to leave.

He nods, mouth pressed to a thin line. He's pointedly not looking at Raleigh. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you, Chuck." Mako bows her head and gives him a smile. He's changing, she thinks. A month ago, he wouldn't have shown up in the med bay for her. 

He nods, still awkward. Mako can feel Raleigh's amusement at the situation over their ghost drift and wants to slap him upside the head. This is a huge progress for Chuck, so Raleigh had better not do something stupid.

Raleigh clears his throat, as if he feels her chiding thoughts, and gets up. "I'm going to look for the nurse so that you can get out of here."

"Yeah, I have to go as well. I was just checking on you, so..." Chuck takes the opportunity to get out of there without losing his face, and with a last nod follows Raleigh out of the room.

Mako follows them with her gaze. They are the only two qualified pilots, and she knows that they're drift compatible. If they just managed to see beyond their animosity, they would be really good together. Better than her and Raleigh were in the Conn-Pod, she admits, although it pains her. She and Raleigh have very high compatibility, but they're not a perfect match.

Raleigh disappears around the corner, and Chuck resolutely goes the opposite way, no matter that it's the wrong direction and he knows it. Mako sighs deeply and barely resists the urge to roll her eyes. 

She'll have to talk to Sensei about it. Those two won't find the right way on their own.


End file.
